Sweet Nothings
by Erised
Summary: A summer of separation from his friends heightens Ron already confused emotions. His infatuation and jealousy rule him, but could three well chosen words quell his firey self-destruction? Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione.
1. A first brush with

Disclaimer: All that is copyrighted belongs to She Who Shall Be Revered. Everything else is mine.

**A first brush with…**

"Putting up with her is enough to make anyone go mad!" Ron thought angrily. "No letters-not one single bloody letter the whole time while she was flying over the Alps with that bloody Bulgarian." Ron hadn't seen either of his two best friends all summer as Harry was hiding out with the Muggles and Hermione was "traveling". They hadn't even met up at Diagon Alley and now he was going to have to deal with her going on and on about her precious _Vicky_.

"Ron, is something wrong?" Ginny inquired from across the compartment. Ron's ears and cheeks were flushed and he had his face molded into a scowl all morning. At the sound of her voice his face smoothed into a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Of course nothing's wrong, I'm just worried about my grades, that's all."

Ginny looked at him with doubt in her eyes. "Worried about your grades? Your starting to sound like Hermione…not that it's a bad thing."

At the sound of her name, his face went back into a scowl.

            "That's absolutely right. We've got to take our OWLs this year," they heard Hermione say from the hallway as the compartment door opened and Harry and Hermione walked in, dragging their trunks behind them. They stowed their trunks and took their seats, Harry next to Ginny and Hermione next to Ron. He barely spoke the whole train ride. He focused his attention at the scenery outside the window; his silence seeming to compel the other members of the compartment to lapse into silence as well. He broke his gaze from Mother Nature's eyes a few times, noticing that Ginny and Harry had fallen asleep while leaning on each other and Hermione had her nose buried in a book with Crookshanks curled on her lap. Only now did her notice that her hair wasn't the same, it was curly instead of bushy. Without knowing, he reached up and tugged a curl gently, then watched it spring up. Finding some amusement in this, he repeated his actions, making the curl spring over and over.

            "You know Ron, that's actually a bit annoying," Hermione said, not lifting her eyes from the book. He withdrew his hand and Crookshanks, seeming to think it was something to play with pounced on it where it lay in his lap. He heard her laugh as he tried to free his hand from underneath the ginger cat. Eventually he gave up and the cat fell asleep.

            "So…how was your summer?" asked Ron, attempting to make conversation.

            "It was good, I had a lot of fun in Bulgaria."

"Really?" he returned his eyes to Mother Natures.

"Yes." She continued to read. Ron was torn between asking her to elaborate and not wanting to hear all about her precious Vicky, but at the moment his hand was falling asleep. Crookshanks awoke crankily and suddenly and bit. Hard.

"Ow! You stupid-" He attempted to throw Crookshanks off, but Crookshanks had already sunk and released his claws in Ron's arm before jumping onto Hermione's.

"Crookshanks, that wasn't really nice." Hermione's eyes still traveled across the page rapidly.

"Look what your cat did to me," he said, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

"Ron, you'll get blood on my book."

"That's the point. The blood."

"Oh you big baby." She tapped her wand on his arm, healing the scratches. "Better." He just stared. Sighing, she kissed his arm. "Now?" His ears twinged pink. He looked from his arm to her lips, back to his arm, then back to her lips. They were so soft, and he was so tempted. He leaned to her mouth and kissed her, squeezing Crookshanks out from between them. He pushed the book aside and delved into her mouth when she made a sound of protest. The inside of her mouth was silky, the little bumps on her tongue a sensation he had never felt before. He was aware he was pressing her beneath him, holding her face between his hands. She arched her back, pressing against him. The book fell to the ground with a load clunk, followed by an angry yowl from Crookshanks whose tail had been pinched by the book. Ginny and Harry snorted in time with each other and Ron and Hermione sprang apart, hoping they hadn't noticed the kiss. Ginny's head slid down Harry's chest to rest in his lap and Harry's hand came to rest on her hip. Ron scowled before turning back to Hermione. She had returned to reading her book.

Just letting you know, I have no idea where to go with this. Please give me ideas!


	2. Discover Me

Disclaimer: The only thing that is mine is the plot, or lack thereof.

**Discover Me**

Ginny awoke to find her head in Harry's lap, on something that was a bit lumpy. Sitting across the compartment, Ron and Hermione were separately occupied, and she shifted her head slightly. Harry breathed in sharply. Closing her eyes, to hide her shock, she shifted her head once more and was rewarded with the same reaction. If she wasn't pretending to be asleep, she would have grinned, knowing exactly where her head was. Content, she didn't fall back asleep, but allowed herself to move her head every five minutes or so, causing him to jerk or inhale, all the while pretending to be asleep.

An hour later, Harry awoke with a jolt, jumping so much that Ginny couldn't pretend to be asleep any longer without being discovered. She did not, however, move her head. Harry looked down at her like a unicorn caught in wandlight. She merely smiled pleasantly and moved her head, pressing down before sitting up. Harry's face was flushed and he continued to stare at her. Maybe she had given him a dream of some sort. The thought thrilled her.

"Are you alright?" she asked, knowing that he was far from it.

"Yes, yes, I 'm fine," he replied all too quickly. Her smile of concern deepened.

"You're awfully hot and bothered," she said, innocently crossing her legs and brushing him in the process.

"Ju-just had a funny dream, that's all."

"Would you like to tell me about it?" He looked mortified at the mere suggestion. "I'll take that as a no." Harry was now rubbing his hand over his face, which had returned to its normal color. "I'll be back, I need to use the loo." Closing the sliding door behind her, she made her way to the bathroom at the end of the hall, laughing. Harry was so funny sometimes. Her laughter stopped short when she found three figures coming up the train towards herself: two large and pudgy, one tall and lean. The Trio from Hell.

"Hmm… Do I smell a rat? Oh no, it must be a weasel." The larger two, oft called Crabbe and Goyle (though she could never remember who was whom…), guffawed.

"Maybe, you smell a ferret?" Draco's smile stayed icy and his eyes glinted with hate.

"Careful, little Weaslette, or you may find yourself mailed home in little pieces."

"Careful, oh foul one, or I might pee on you." She was rewarded by a confused flash of emotion that spread and disappeared on his face.

"You wouldn't have the chance, I would never find myself between your legs."

"You're right, because I won't let you be there. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to pee." She pushed between the giant lumps that followed Draco around like little lost puppies, or more like great blundering boarhounds, and concealed herself within the lavatory. Once her duty was done, she returned to the compartment, finding her friends beginning a game of Exploding Snap, herself already dealt in. This was where she belonged, with her crush, her closest female friend, and her closest sibling, and none of them knew how close she had come to leaving them all behind.

That was sweet and short, wasn't it? So now you all want to know what Ginny's hiding, but I'm not telling…not yet anyways. I need a beta for this story. Just drop me a review (I love those things!) or go to my profile and get my e-mail address. This might sound weird but if you could send me a sample of writing, or a link to one of your stories, I'd greatly appreciate it because I want my beta to be thoroughly critical of my writing in all aspects: ideas, grammar; typographical errors, nonsensical ideas, etc. For example, if I'm stumped I'd like to say, "Where do you think this could go?" and discuss possible outcomes. Thanks.


	3. trying things out

Disclaimer: Harry Potter = not mine; plot = mine

**trying**** (things) out**

There had been no mention of "the incident" (or so he liked to call it) for about a week and now he assumed there wasn't going to ever be any mention of it. That was fine with him; Hermione had been acting like she had never been away, as if the summer never happened and Harry, her, and him were all chumming along quite nicely. Just like they were that breakfast, where Ron sat, his elbow on the table, twirling his eggs with his fork like they were pasta. He wasn't feeling particularly hungry; he had agreed to try out for quidditch.

"C'mon, it's really not as bad as your making it out to be," Harry said, biting heartily into a sausage he hadn't bothered to cut up.

"You haven't tried out for the team, you simply dived onto it. You couldn't make a fool of yourself on a broomstick if you tried. I'm going to be default."

"You won't make a fool of yourself," Hermione mimicked her younger self, "It's in your blood."

"So now's the part where you race off, the two of us at your heels, and show me Charlie's trophy."

"No," and she leaned across the table and gave him a kiss on his forehead. The Great Hall seemed to freeze around him, except no one seemed to notice. He was sure his ears were pink again.

"For good luck," she justified before busying herself with her bookbag. Harry helped the situation a great deal by seeming as though it was every day Hermione would do something like that, and he supposed for Harry it was. Hermione hugged Harry after she was healed with the Mandrake Draught, hugged him countless times before, and had even kissed him goodbye last year before the train. Maybe Harry had assumed Ron had received the same treatment, and now he was.

Suddenly, Ron's stomach sunk. What if she was acting like this because she truly did like Krum and Ron had taken the position beside Harry of "brotherly friend"? That's all Ron had wanted, wasn't it? The l-word would ruin their friendship and he wanted to protect that at all costs. As suddenly as his stomach sunk, it lifted then sunk again. He realized he l-worded her. Well maybe not, maybe it was just _like like…_

"Ron, I don't think that those eggs can die again, they've already been cooked," Hermione said, smiling kindly. Grudgingly, he shoveled the food as fast as he could and rose, Harry and Hermione with him, to walk out to the quidditch pitch. The tryouts suddenly seemed not so important any more.

"You were great!" Harry grinned, smacking him on the back in a mock-manly style.

"If they don't pick you," said Hermione, her eyes capturing the stars hidden by the sunlight, "then their mad."

"Almost as mad as me," Ron thought, looking away from her star filled eyes and to his broom, a Nimbus 1000, slightly used, but bought with money Ron had saved working at a local Muggle ice cream parlor making it worth more to him than he liked to care.

They trudged up to the castle through the fresh fallen leaves marring the near-perfect green lawn. In the common room, hearty chatter filled the air as friends separated for the summer fell into their normal routines of homework, gossip, and more homework. He glanced at the announcement bored, littered with lost and found notes, a list of forbidden magical items and various reminders about school events. It would be a week before the team list went up.

"It's not going to just appear, you know," Hermione said from the cushy couch where she sat, a book already open across her lap.

"I know, I just wish a week were gone and it was all over, now," Ron replied, joining her on the couch. She reached out and gently smoothed back his hair; he leaned his head slightly towards her fingers.

"It will all be up before you know it." And with a wilting glance at the board, he began to do his homework.


End file.
